Plush and method of making the same



. M ELHANEY May 11, 1943. J H

USH AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME Filed March 20, 1942 Pateniediay 11, 1943 PLUSH AND METHOD or MAKING THE SAME James Henry McElhaney, Philadelphia, Pa., assigner to Wissahickon Plush Mills, Inc., Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application March 20, 1942, Serial No. 435,546 scams. 139491) The present invention relates to plush having uncut pile loops, particularly of the type em bodied in upholstery fabrics.

A purpose of the invention is to simplify and cheapen the production of uncut pile fabrics having pile areas of two different heights.

A further purpose is to obtain high and low pile effects with a single wire height in weaving uncut pileupholstery fabrics.

A further purpose is to employ in an uncut pile fabric two pile areas of synthetic fiber, suitably rayon, which exhibit markedly different shrinking, crimping and/or crushing effects.

A further pu pose is to produce one pile area in an uncut pile fabric from continuous filament ranging in denier between and 20, and preferably between 14 and 18, and to form another pile area of synthetic staple fiber ranging in denier between 1 and 3, with or without pileless areas, and with suitable combination of the continuous filament area and the staple fiber area to form pattern effects accentuated by the markedly different shrinkage, crimping and crushing of the piles in the respective areas.

A further purpose is to produce patterns in uncut loop pile fabrics by manufacturing respective pile areas of synthetic fibers which in the same dye bath give markedly different colors.

A further purpose is to manufacture an uncut loop pile fabric having pile areas of coarse continuous filament and pile areas of fine artificial staple fiber combined in pattern effects, and to accentuate the difference between the respective pile areas by boiling the fabric as a special step or incident to dyeing.

Further purposes appear in the specification and in the claims.

In the drawing I have illustrated one only of I the numerous possible embodiments of my invention, the forms shown being chosen from the standpoint of convenience of illustration and satisfactory demonstration of the principles involved.

Figure l is a photolithograph of pile surface of a fabric manufactured in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 2-is a section in warp direction showing a fabric embodying the present invention immediately after weaving and before an opportunity for shrinkage, crinkling or crushing of parts of the pile has occurred.

Figure 3 is a warpwise section of the fabric of Figure 2 after the staple fiber pile areas are lowered with respect to the continuous filament pile areas. In the drawing like numerals refer to like parts.

In the manufacture of plush of the uncut loop pile type, very interesting and attractive effects have beenachieved in natural fibers such as mohair by weaving fabrics having piles of two different heights. This has been accomplished by employing looms having two difierent wire heights.

The present inventor has discovered that where uncut loop pile fabrics are manufactured entirely of synthetic fiber in the pile, having one pile area of coarse denier synthetic continuous filament and another pile area of fine denier synthetic staple fiber, the inherent differences in shrinkage as well as in crinkling and crushing may be usedto produce pile areas of effectively different heights, notwithstanding that the wire height is in all cases the same. It is thus possible by diiferential shrinkage, crinkling and crushing properties of coarse denier synthetic continuous filament as compared with fine denier synthetic staple fiber to obtain all of the advantages heretofore secured in animal fibers by weaving with a plurality of wire heights.

Since a combination of high and low pile and the corresponding mosaic efiect is obtained without any special weaving technique or any special loom construction (beyond what would ordinarily be used to produce the particular pattern in question in a single pile height-for example, a Jacquard loom), the result is a much cheaper upholstery fabric having the advantages of the much more expensive fabrics heretofore made on special looms.

The experiments of the present inventor indicate that it is also possible to obtain a marked contrast in color value between the pile area made of coarse denier synthetic continuous filament and the pile areas made of fine denier synthetic staple fiber. Providing the two areas are -manufactured from synthetic fiber, suitably rayon, taking the same dye, the fabric may be dyed in the piece or in the yarn and due to the inherent characteristics of the materials the coarse denier continuous synthetic filament will assume a darker color than the fine denier synthetic staple fiber, the difference in color being one of color value and not hue. The result is that-a contrast in color effect is obtained to add to the contrast in pile height by means of a single dyeing.

Figure 1- illustrates the pile face of apiece of upholstery plush of suitable weave. The fabric 10 contains high pile areas ll, low pile areas I2 and pileless areas l3. The high pile, low pile and pileless areas are combined in any form to produce a pattern, here consisting of a floral design formed by high pile areas I l superimposed on a ground consisting of the low pile areas [2, and having a ground design formed by the pileless areas I3.

The high pile II is composed of coarse denier synthetic continuous filament yarn of any suitable material, preferably rayon and most desirably regenerated cellulose rayon of the viscose type. Less desirably, regenerated cellulose of the cuprammonium type may be used. It is also permissible to employ cellulose ethers and esters such as methyl cellulose, ethyl cellulose and cellulose acetate, or propionate. Synthetic fibers which are not rayon, such as fibers of linear polyamide or vinyl acetate or casein, may also be employed.

The size of the filaments in the yarn making up the high pile should range between ten and twenty denier and preferably between fourteen and eighteen denier. The yarn itself for the high pile should be between five hundred and one thousand denier, and preferably between six hundred and nine hundred denier. Any usual twist may be used in the high pile yarn, for example, from one to two turns per inch and preferably about one and a half turns per inch.

. It is decidedly preferable to employ large denier synthetic continuous filament for the high pile. However, as it is recognized that continuous filament is merely fiber of very considerable length, some of the advantages of the present invention can be obtained from large denier synthetic staple fiber of fiber length at least as great as eight inches, and worsted spun to assure parallelism of the long twisted ends by combing. Syntheic staple fiber of between ten and twenty denier and of fiber length greater than eight inches when worsted spun has properties somewhat approaching those of continuous filament.

The low pile area l2 may likewise be of any suitable synthetic fiber, of any of the types mentioned above in connection with the high pile, and with the same preference for rayon and for viscose. In the case of the low pile yarn, however, the filament should range between one and three denier, preferably between one and two denier and most desirably about one and a half denier. Furthermore, it is necessary that this yarn exhibit a very mushy character, so that it will shrink abnormally. It should be spun on the cotton system so as to produce a very open yarn texture. For the cotton system, carding is employed but not combing and the staple fiber is not par'allelized in the yarn.

The staple length should be any suitable length for spinning on the cotton system, desirably of the order of three quarters of an inch to two inches.

The yarn characteristics may be those of any suitable cotton-spun yarn. For example, the yarn may be as small as tens, or as large as forties, and preferably will be twenties. Any suitable number of plies may be employed, although two plies have given very good results in practice. The twist will desirably be warp twist on the cotton system, which, in the case of twenties, will be of the order of thirteen or fourteen turns per inch.

It will be evident that the yarn size, number of plies, twist and fiber length are not critical as long as they are s table for cotton spinning.

While any one of a wide variety of synthetic suitable fibers may be employed for the high pile and the low pile, the materials used for the high pile and the low pile will preferably be capable of taking the same dye. Most desirably both will be viscose rayon or at least both will be regenerated cellulose rayon. If, however, some other type of fiber is used for the high pile, the same type should preferably be used for the low pile. The advantage of this is that when the material is dyed, either in the fabric or in the yarn, the high pile material and the low pile will take the same hue from the-dye bath but the high piles color will be darker than the low piles, as already explained.

Any suitable weave may be employed, depending on the type of loom available. It will be preferred, however, to use a warp pile loom of the Jacquard type, although a weft pile could.

equally well be employed.

Figure 2 shows the fabric l0 immediately after weaving and exhibiting the high pile areas ll, low pile areas l2 and pileless areas l3 in any suitable combination as the figure requires. This particular weave is accomplished on a double Jacquard loom, using only the lower portions, to weave a single fabric. The lower wefts l4 are interwoven with the binder warps l5 and IS in well-known manner. The high pile warp I1 is carried over the wires I8 in the high pile areas H, but ,at other points, is carried through the backing, as shown at I9. Likewise the low pile warps 20 are carried over the wires l8 in the low pile areas and at other points are carried through the backing, as shown at 2|. An upper set of wefts 22 is shown, which wefts are not permanently part of the fabric, but which are pulled out or lifted off after weaving.

Subsequent to weaving of the fabric, as shown in Figure 2, the fabric is treated with boiling water to accentuate the difference between the high pile and the low pile. Instead of straight boiling water, boiling salt solution may be preferable, as an aid to the dyeing operation. The boiling solution will preferably be the dye bath itself in which the piece of goods is to be dyed. The time of boiling treatment will vary from about ten minutes up, depending on the particular shade being dyed. Preliminary to the dye bath, there may of course be the usual wetting out.

Figure 3 shows the fabric of Figure 2 after the boiling treatment. The high pile loops 23 are substantially unaffected. But the low pile loops 24 are very markedly shrunk and also crinkled and crushed. This pronounced reduction in length of the low pile would be obtained to some extent even without the boiling, due to the crinkling and crushing of the low pile under pressure, but the boiling greatly accentuates the effect. The low pile not only shrinks in length but causes longitudinal shrinkage of about five percent in the length of the goods. If, for any reason, it were not desired to boil the goods, wetting of the goods would cause a certain shrinkage.

Once this shrinkage of the low pile is obtained, it is substantially permanent, and further shrinkage is not objectionable.

The wefts and binder warps may be-of any suitable material, for example, cotton, though they might of course be of synthetic fiber also.

The resultant fabric consisting as it does of high pile areas, low pile areas, and pileless areas, will be found to have very fine structural prop- All of these advantages are obtained without increase in the complexity of Weaving or special spinning technique.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A pile -'fabric having uncut loop pile areas which are relatively high and uncut loop pile areas which are relatively low, combinedin pattern effect, the relatively high pile areas predominantly consisting of synthetic fibers between 10 and 20 denier of fiber length at least as great as eight incheswhich are parallel and twisted and the relatively low pile areas predominantly consisting of synthetic staple fiber of between 1 and 3 denier spun on the cotton system.

2. A pile fabric having high and low uncut loop pile areas combined in pattern effect, in which the high pile areas substantially consist of synthetic continous filament of between 10 and 20 denier and the low pile areas substantially consist of synthetic staple fiber of between 1 and 3 denier spun on the cotton system.

3. A pile fabric having. high and low uncut ,loop pile areas combined in pat-tern effect, in

which the high pile areas substantially consist of synthetic continuous filament of between 14 and 18 denier and the low pile areas substantially consist of synthetic staple fiber of approximately one and one-half denier spun on the cotton system.

4. A pile fabric having high and low uncut loop pile areas combined in pattern effect, in which the high pile areas substantially consist of synthetic continuous filament of between 10 and 20 denier and the low pile areas substantially consist of synthetic staple fiber of between 1 and 3 denier and of the same character of synthetic material as the synthetic continuous filament, both the high and the low pile areas having the same dye but the high pile areas having a darker color than the low pile areas.

5. The process of producing pattern eiiects involving contrasting pile heights in uncut loop pile fabric which comprises weaving an uncut loop pile fabric of substantially uniform pile height during weaving with synthetic continuous filament of between 10 and 20 denier in one set of pile areas and with synthetic staple fiber of between 1 and 3 denier in another set of pile areas and shrinking the synthetic staple fiber .areas to produce a low pile in such areas.

6. The process of producing an uncut loop pile fabric having a pattern efi'ect produced at least in part by pile areas of difierent heights which comprises weaving all pile areas with a uniform wire height from synthetic continuous filament of between 10 and 20 denier for certain areas and of synthetic staple fiber of between 1 and 3 denier for other areas and, subsequent to weaving, boiling the fabric to cause lowering of the synthetic staple fiber pile areas.

7. The process of producing uncut loop pile fabrics having diiierences in pile height which contribute to the pattern effect which comprises weaving all pile areas out of the same type of synthetic fiber, out of synthetic continuous filament of between 10 and 20 denier in the case 01 certain pile areas and out of synthetic staple fiber of between I and 3 denier spun on the cotton system in the case of other pile areas, employing a substantially uniform pile height during weaving of all areas, and, subsequent to weaving, dyeing the fabric with a dye which is taken up by both-the continuous filament and the staple fiber but to difierent color values.

8. The process of producing uncut loop pile fabrics having differences in pile height which contribute to the pattern effect which comprises weaving all pile areas out of the same type of synthetic fiber, out of synthetic continuous filament of between 10 and 20 denier in the case of certain pile areas and out of synthetic staple fiber of between 1 and 3 denier spun on the cotton system in the case of other pile areas,

employing a substantially uniform pile height during weaving of all areas, and, subsequent to weaving, boiling the fabric in a dye bath to dye the different pile areas with the same dye but to difierent color values and to shrink the synthetic staple fiber areas.

JAMES HENRY MCELHANEY. 

